We’ve made the big decision to hold our monthly meetings in person in various locations across Greater Sydney, as opposed to online, from now on. The last time we did this was in 2019.
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One problem with being a special interest Lions Club, as opposed to being a traditional general purpose club that serves a clearly defined area, is that it’s hard to find a suitable place to hold a meeting. Also, finding members amongst the autism and autistic communities is like searching for needles in a haystack. Things we still struggle with to this day, but never moreso than in our first two years of existence. Monthly meetings weren’t really a thing for us back then.
Then came 2020 and with it, an unprecedented global event. Traditional clubs, used to holding their meetings in person, all of a sudden had to adapt in order to survive. For those clubs, it presented an existential crisis. For us, it presented an opportunity.
And so in June of that year, when the whole world was hunkered down in battle, beleaguered by a mysterious, uncaring, and deadly virus, we held our first regular monthly club meeting. It was a well-attended meeting, with 21 locked-down individuals joining us via Zoom.
As the pandemic wore on, and with little else to do, and no other place to go, attendance at our meetings remained high, from month to month. We had guest speakers come. We had art corner. We hosted a game of trivia. We even held a hackathon.
Newly-invented vaccines created in record time would eventually pass clinical trials and be administered en masse to the public. Freedom of movement, which until the advent of COVID was taken for granted, was gradually restored. More and more people were going out again socialising, pursuing other activities.
Our attendance tapered off as a result, yet steadfast we remained to our monthly routine. After all, we had a regular meeting place. We had attendees from as far afield as Cyprus and China. You couldn’t have THAT if you met in your local RSL, could you?
The realities of being a de facto “cyber club” would eventually set in. With dwindling attendance at our meetings, we lost motivation, we lost purpose. Now we were having an existential crisis of our own. The virus still circulates, but the pandemic had long since come to an end and the world had moved on. It was time for us to move on as well. It was time to make a change.
In July of 2024, we took our first tentative step and booked a meeting room at the library in Hornsby. Only four people came. This was mostly due to a lack of advertising. This was, however, intentional as this meeting was a proof of concept for future monthly meetings.
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Our plan going forward, at least for 2024-25, is to meet in a different location in Greater Sydney on the fourth Monday of each month. We plan on meeting in venues such as libraries and community centres, which we perceive to be more accessible and autistic-friendly from a sensory perspective. We have a preference for venues that are easily accessible by public transport.
By meeting in a different place, but at the same time each month, we hope to find a wider audience, make our club more visible, and grow our membership. It’s possible – in fact, likely – that we will one day settle upon a regular meeting location, hopefully one that is centrally located and free for us to use. For the time being, we are nomads!
We will not be holding meetings in a hybrid format (in person meeting with videoconferencing), at least for the time being, since hybrid is hard to do, fairly and equitably. Even with the best possible set-up, there’s no escaping the fact that online participants in a hybrid meeting are second class citizens.
We might hold fully online meetings again, as the need arises and as the occasion warrants. Committee meetings of our club will very likely continue to be online. We would like our regularly monthly events to be wholly in person however.
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Our August meeting was conducted at the Chatswood library. Twelve people came – a threefold improvement on the previous meeting. We made a concerted effort to advertise this meeting – on social media, on the Meetup platform, and via email – hence the increase in attendance.
Having a physical room full of autistic people, as opposed to a “Zoom room”, was like night and day. We were all engaged in a way that would not be possible if we were sitting in the comfort of our loungerooms in suburbia. We were all receptive to the ideas for community service being presented that evening. We all felt included, as everyone had a chance to speak and to be themselves.
Then some of us went to the Orchard Hotel in Chatswood after the meeting for drinks. Fun, fellowship AND service – this is what Lions should be about!
Building upon the resounding success of our meeting in August, we will next meet in Eastwood, birthplace of the Granny Smith apple and location of the Eastwood Community Hall on Monday the 23rd of September. Get your tickets here.
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If you have any ideas for where our club should meet, or if you would like to offer a venue, please get in touch in the Comments section or contact us privately.